Rotary engine.



8. SMITH.

ROTARY ENGINE.

APPLICATION FILED JULY I2, 1918.

1,302,446. Patented Apr. 29,1919.

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8. SMITH.

ROTARY Emma. APPLICATION FILED JULY 12, I9l8.

Patented Apr. 29,1919;

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SENE'Y SMITH, OF VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA.

ROTARY ENGINE.

isoaaic.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 29, 11919.;

Application filed July 12, 1918. Serial No. 244,639.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that l, SIDNEY SMITH, a subjectof the King of Great Britain, and a resident of the cit of Vancouver, in the Province of British olumbia, Canada, have invented certain new and useful Improvements 1n Rotary Engines, of which the following is.

which is simple in construction and opera-' tion while at the same time being capable of developing high power in proportion to its size economically and efliciently at either high or low speeds and which may be operated with equal facility with steam, gas,

compressed air or wateras an engine or as a combined engine and pump. A further object is to devise a rotary engine which may be placedin any position without decrease in power, which occupies little space, the fewness of its .parts enabling it to be as sembled in compact form, which will start at full load at any position of its rotor, which may be reversed immediately, and in which the speed may be quickly varied. A still further object is to provide an engine in which the rotor is provided with means for insuring a perfectly tight power chamberso as to prevent loss of power through leakage of steam or other driving fluid, in which there is no back pressure, and which is practically noiseless in operation.

I attain these objects by the construction illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which Figure 1 is a side elevation of the engine, with side cover removed.

Fig. 2 is an end view of the engine.

Fig. 3 is a sideelevation, in cross section.

Fig. 4: is an end elevation, in cross section.

Fig. 5 is a view showing" arrangement of the piston exhaust ports.

Fig.6 is a view showing arrangement of piston steam inlet ports.

Fig. 7 is a detail view of a piston.

Fig. 8 is a detail view of a piston vane.

Fig. 9 is a face view of a piston and vanes assembled thereon. I

Fig. 10 is a plan view of Fig. 9. i

Fig. 11 is an edge view of a piston and a plurality of vanes assembled thereon.

Fig. 12 is a detail view of one of'the extra vanes.

Fig. 13 is a plan view of Fig. 11.

Similar figures of reference indicate similar parts throughout the several views.

1 indicates the rotor casing which is preferablycylindrical as to its outer periphery and is mounted on a suitable base 2 and provided with removable side covers 3 and a, by the removal of which access may be had to the rotor and the rotor chamber, the rotor being indicated by the numeral 5 and the chamber generally by the numeral 6. The

covers 3 and 4 are provided-with suitable stufling boxes 7 and glands 8 in and by means of which the rotor shaft/9 and the rotor 5 are centrally 'supported'in the chamber, which chamber is elliptical "in formation as shown in Figs. 1 and 3, the rotor "body itself, however, being perfectly cvlin drioal and in close contact with the walls of the chamber 6 at the narrowest diameter of rotor chambers 10 and 11 are formed when the rotor is assembled in place. F luid-pressure ducts 1213 and 1415 are provided in the walls of the casing 1, the inner extremities of which are formed as nozzles di-, rected into and serving the chambers '10 and 11, as shown in Fig. 3, while the outer ends of the ducts are opened and closed by suitable inlet valves 16 and 17, also shown in Fig. 3. 18 and 19 indicate exhaust passages from the respective chambers 10 and 11.

The rotor 5 consists of a cylindrical body fitting within the casing provided with the shaft 9 whereby it is rotatably mounted and having formed in its periphery bores 20. 21 and 22 spaced equidistant therearound and extending inwardly to communicate respectively with ports 23, 24 and 25 extending transversely through the rotor from side to side of the same, as shown in Fig. 4, the periphery of'the rotor being also provided "with slots 26, 27 and 28 extending transversely of the rotor and centrally of the bores 20, 21 and 22. Respectively fitting slidably these bores are tubular piston members 29, 30 and 31 open at their inner ends and closed at their outer ends provided with blade extensions 32, 33, and 34, each opposite edge of the respective extensions having a groove 35 formed therein, as shown in Fig. 7 and mounted on the opposite edges of the extensions and fitting slidably in the slots for vertical movement therein are piston vanes 36, these vanes being formed of two side plates connected together so as to be closed along their bottom and outer edges and each being provided on its inner side with a feather 37 adapted to fit slidably its respective groove 35. The inner faces of the vane side plates are cut away in the manner shown in Fig. 1.2 so that the mouth of the vane is flared out, as shown in Figs. 8 and 10. I

41 indicates generally a circular groove formed on the inner face of the cover 3 divided into four section 42, 43,, 44 and 45 by partitions 45 arranged on the vertical and horizontal axes of the cover, as shown more particularly in Fig. 6, the upper and lower sections 4243 and 4445 being respectively in communication with the fluid-pressure supply through inlet ports 46, 47, 48, and 49 opening into double inlet valves, in dicated generally by 50 and 51, that is to say, fluid pressure may be admitted to, or shut off from, these sections of the groove 41 by operating the valves 50 and 51, the valve chambers of these valves having each two valves and arranged so that the act of operat ing valve 50 to admit pressure to section 42 shuts it off from section 43, and vice versa and the act of operating valve 51 to admit pressure to section 44 shuts it off from section 45, and vice versa. The diametral pitch of the ports 46, 47, 48 and 49 is the same as that of the rotor ports 23, 24 and 25, from which it will be seen that as the rotor revolves the ports 23, 24 and 25 will register successively with the ports 46, 47, 48 and 49, and these latter ports are arranged one on each side of and close to the vertical partitions 45*, as shown in Fig. 6.

A similar arrangement of exhaust ports is provided in cover 4, as shown in Fig. 5, in which 52 indicates a circular groove formed on the inside of the cover and divided into four sections 53, 54, 55, and 56 by vertically and horizontally arranged partitions 57, the sections 5356 and 5455 being respectively in communication with the main exhaust passage through exhaust ports 58, 59, 60 and 61 opening into double exhaust valves indicated generally by the numerals 62 and 63, that is to say, the sections may be exhausted by operating the valves 62 and 63 each of which has two valves arranged so that the act of operating valve 62 to exhaust section 53 closes the port of section 56 and vice versa, and the act of operating valve 63 to exhaust section 54 closes the port of section 55 and vice versa. The diametral pitch of the exhaust ports is the same as that of the rotor ports 23, 24 and 25, from which it will be seen that these latter ports will register successively with the exhaust ports 51, 52, 53, and 54 as the r0- tor revolves, and the arrangement of these exhaust ports is as shown in Fig. 5, that is, one on each side of and close to the horizontal partitions 57.

Having thus indicated the principal parts of my invention I will now describe the manner in which it operates.

In F 1g. 3 two sets of fluid-pressure ducts are shown, that is, 1213 and 14-15, but it is only necessary here to refer to one set 1213, as the other set is used when the engine is running in the direction opposite to that when ducts 12-13 are used. Therefore, assuming that the machine is assem bled as shown in Figs. 1 and 3 with one set of vanes 36 on each piston, as shown in Fig. 9, and the steam turned into the ducts 1213 it will be seen that the steam will emerge from the ducts into the chambers 10 and 11 to impinge on the rear sides of the piston extensions and vanes carried thereby in the chambers so that the rotor will be rotated, the steam being exhausted at any suitable predetermined point. The narrowing of each chamber toward its ends causes the pistons to enter their respective bores more or less as they recede from or move toward the center of the chamber but the pistons are maintained in their full out positions at any point in the rotor travel by centrifugal force set up by the rotor so that the outer edges of the extensions and piston vanes bear closely on the chamber walls while the vanes themselves are pressed out laterally against the inner faces of the side covers 3 and 4 on account of the steam pressure being exerted on the inside faces of the vane side plates, so that there is no leakage of steam past the sides of the vanes where they bear on the covers or past the ends of the vanes and piston extensions where they bear on the chamber wall. The rotor body, however, is not an exact fit within the casing, that is, the sides of the rotor are not made to form a steam tight joint with the casing covers so that when the steam is turned on a portion of it passes between the rotor sides and the side covers, thus causing an even balance of the rotor within the casing and also filling the ports 23, 24 and 25 from which it will be seen that the pistons 29, 30 and 31 are under pressure on their inner ends so that their reciprocating inward movements are cushioned by the steam the presence of which also renders positive the contact of the piston vanes and extensions with the chamber Walls.

The cushioning of the pistons is controlled by means of the steam inlet ports 46, 47, 48 and 49 and exhaust ports 58, 59, 60 and 61, inlet ports 4648 and exhaust ports 5960 serving the pistons when the engine is running in one direction and inlet ports 47-49 and exhaust ports 5861 serving the pistons when the engine is reversed, as it will be seen that if valves 50 and 51 be operated to open ports 46 and 48 steam will be admitted into the grooves 42 and 45 to pass into the rotor ports 23, 24 and 25 at one side as they register with these grooves and thus pressure may be directly applied to the inside of the tubular piston members, the steam being exhausted out of the rotor ports at the opposite side through the ports 59 and 60, the valves 62 and 63 being actuated first of all to open these ports, the amount of opening determining the cushioning pressure on the pistons.

To reverse the engine all that is necessary is to close the ducts 1213 and admit steam to the ducts 1415 When the operation Will be as described in the foregoing but the rotation Will be in the opposite direction.

When it is desired to use the machine as a combined engine and pump one of the chambers 10 and 11 may be used as the steam chamber, the other one being used as the pump suction chamber and to which the suction pipe is connected.

What I claim as my invention is:

1. A rotary engine comprising a cylinder having its interior of elliptical shape, a cylindrical rotor mounted to rotate in said cylinder, said rotor having openings therein and pistons in said openings, each of said pistons comprising a hollow body, blade extensions on the outer end thereof and double vanes connected With the side of each ex tension.

2. A rotary engine comprising a cylinder having its interior of elliptical shape, a cylindrical rotor mounted to rotate in said cylinder, said rotor having openings therein and pistons in said openings, each of said pistons comprising a hollow body, blade extensions on the outer end thereof and double vanes slidably connected With the side of each extension.

3. A rotary engine comprising a cylinder having its interior of elliptical shape, a cylindrical rotor mounted to rotate in said cylinder, said rotor having bores formed in its periphery and ports communicating with the bores, tubular pistons slidably mounted in said bores, blade extensions on the outer ends of the pistons and double vanes slidably connected with the sides of said extensions.

Dated at Vancouver, B. C. this 26th day of June, 1918.

SIDNEY SMITH.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. 0. 

